Once more into the fray with my blog series about delving into the level design of 'Hitman 2: No subtitle'. This next level is an interesting one, as it is the only level in Hitman 2 that I harbour genuine distaste for and, unlike with Colorado, I'm unsure as to why. Perhaps things will start to elucidate once I dive into it with my analytical lens on. Before I get started I have a disclaimer of sorts to say, as usual. Firstly, Spoilers ahead so bare that in mind. Secondly, I would like to preface this blog with an observation I've made of the entire mission roster.
I'm starting to realize, from doing this blog series, that there is a pattern in the way that IOI creates their content. It started as a passive, "Oh look, this one is similar to that one." but now that I think about it, every single map in Hitman 2 plays upon the same ideas that they bought up in 'Hitman : No Subtitle'. Paris and Miami are both highly publicized event maps. Sapienza and Santa Fortuna both feature sleepy towns that are seem to represent their respective countries. Marrakesh and Mumbai are both busy metropolitan environments. And as for Bangkok and Hokkaido... well, you'll see. It's as if IOI are specifically making their levels to cater to each and every type of fan in their respective wheelhouse. (Hence why the, not so popular, Colorado level just got remade into that short introductory mission in Hawke's Bay.)
Now that's out of the way, on to the revelations; and, oh boy, are there some big one's today. (Prepare for a metric butt-ton of story) After Colorado, all the back in Season 1, there was a brief cutscene in which it was revealed that the Shadow Client (Now known to be Lucas Grey) knew 47 on a personal level. It didn't take much deduction to figure out that the reason why was because they were both subjects on the Ort-Meyer productline. (This are all lore tidbits that date back to 'Hitman: Codename 47', I'll probably write a blog about it sometime down the line.) Fast forward to today, and 47 tracks Grey to the facility in which they were both raised. He is about to execute the Shadow Client when Lucas shows him the matching scars on their hand, plus the pair of child's handprints that had been left on the wall in their old bedroom. Despite having undergone extensive treatment in order to make him forget, 47 manages to break through his mental block and recall the name of his old friend; Not Lucas Grey, but Subject 6. (Seems someone got ripped off by the 'mind wipe' company.)
Lucas explains that Providence is organized through the efforts of a group known as the Partners, but their identity is a secret to everybody but one man, Diana's one Providence contact; The Constant. In order to reach him, however, they must go through the first man to hold that title, a retired Russian spy master known as; Janus. (He named himself after the Two-faced roman god? Well, he doesn't sound insufferable and pretentious at all.) After some research, which I can only assume consisted entirely of a google search, the team discovers that he has been stationed in the little all-American town of Whittleton Creek, wherein he enjoys the protection for an army of live-in guards. This leaves 47 with 3 objectives, yet again; He must kill Janus, Nolan Cassidy (Janus' head of security), and uncover information that would lead to tracking down the constant.
With all the world-travelling that Hitman games do, there are still some themes that IOI return to every now and then, themes that sometimes become beloved. Whittleton Creek is a map that is designed from it's very bones to hearken to the themes of Suburbia that fans have loved ever since Blood Money. Heck, they even reference it in the name. 'Hitman: Blood Money's suburbia level was entitled: 'A New Life', whilst IOI called this level: 'Another life'. They very much wanted to wear their influence right on their sleeve with this particular mission.
When you think about the connotation of an idea like this, you can understand why both the fans and IOI wanted to revisit it. The idea of a perfect, white-picket fence, American dream-esque image that is torn apart by the presence of one deadly assassin is intoxicating. It's the same idea that bought us one of the most effective scenes from Terminator, (Which, now that I think about it, was removed from the theatrical cut for some inane reason.) and the 'Tranquility lane' section of Fallout 3. We just can't resist the idea of taking something seemingly perfect and ruining it with wanton and excessive violence or cruelty. It is akin to the 'call of the abyss'; it is something that we shouldn't want to do, but we do anyway. Perhaps it is our way of projecting flaws into the flawless and proving that perfection doesn't truly exist, so that we can feel better about the inadequacies of our own life. There is a reason why the call it 'The American dream'.
That being said, this is a very pretty and expansive map. The design philosophy behind a suburban playspace is the possibility to be able to explore several lived-in home spaces and see into the lives of the residents. This was the same philosophy behind the Himmapan Hotel in Bangkok, but I always thought that IOI had failed to bring the idea to fruition in that level, whereas here I feel it is fully realized. If you can bring yourself to leave the gorgeous orange hue of the Autumn street, you can find snippets of other people's lives in the attics and garages that you visit, like shades of entirely unrelated lore. You may find something as inconsequential as a rockband set in someone's garage, and something as disturbing as a serial killer's toolkit in an old woman's basement. All of that is simply waiting for the player to explore.
Exploration certainly is the name of the game here, as both Janus and Nolan Cassidy are situated on opposite sides of a decently sized map. I think that this is where my gripes with this level begin, as between the targets is an inordinate amount of dead space. I do understand what IOI was going with here, especially with the 'intel gathering' objective that they introduced specifically for this level. IOI wanted to encourage players to explore and naturally pick up on the clues they needed to discover the location of the Constant. However, this does make the level seem sparse and lacking in purpose most of the time. A lot of these locations don't even have NPC's hanging around them, meaning that the level is lacking in potential for interesting escalations and/or user generated content.
Despite my issues, I will admit that the leaning towards exploration has definitely benefited the storytelling of the level. As 'Another Life' is lucky enough to only feature two targets, IOI had more time to design level-based Intel for you to discover more about your targets dynamically. Or should I say; Target, as IOI seemed to know where they wanted to invest the lionshare of their, and the player's, attention. Nolan Cassidy is a mostly storyless character with his only claim to fame being the fact that he used to be chief of security of 2005's Vice President, Daniel Morris; Who, incidentally, 47 kills in 'Hitman: Blood Money' (Yay, another past game reference!)
Seeing as how 'Another Life's preamble is designed to point out how significant of an influence that Janus had on 47's early life, it makes sense that IOI wanted to waste no opportunity for the player to learn more about the man, although these opportunities can be fleeting and hard to connect. I'm sure many player's who forced their way into the bedroom in the 'house for sale' never found out why there were signs of a murder scene having happened in there. I suppose that knowledge is the reward for the attentive. A few of the opportunities open up details about Janus too, one in particular has the player work in order to set off Janus' nostalgia bone, forcing him to ramble on about the 'good old days' from the cold war.
The opportunities have their own unique charm to them as well. Many of them aren't as flamboyant as you would find from some other Hitman levels (Like the one where you fed a druglord to his pet hippo) but they are no less explosive. (Sometimes literally.) My personal shout out goes to the opportunity wherein you gas Nolan Cassidy's base of operations with insecticide and then... well, do whatever you want to with his unconscious body. Again, it's not flashy, but it is open ended enough to allow for some creative murder opportunities.
'Another life' is a perfectly decent Hitman level, but one I find myself revisiting it very rarely. I feel that the map lacks a life outside of it's main targets and the catering towards the 'investigation' elements of the mission is the culprit. I won't pretend that the balance between making an engaging level and a flexible one is an easy one to strike, but I've seen IOI do it before and I know that they could have done it again. Sadly, they didn't here, and it really does ruin, what would otherwise be, a fantastic level. But, not to worry, as next time we will be diving into the exciting finale for 'Hitman 2: No Subtitle' in 'The Ark Society'. See you then.
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